spacetoday.net: News briefs: February 2-3

Posted: Mon, Feb 4, 2002, 8:59 AM ET (1359 GMT)

New York Governor George Pataki will not sign legislation that would curb light pollution in the state, effectively vetoing the bill, the New York Times reported this weekend. Pataki said the legislation, requiring the replacement of streetlights with new models that direct more light downward, would be too expensive for state and local governments to implement. The bill will be reintroduced in the state legislature, but has less chance of passing because of the current recession.
Dennis Tito, the first commercial space tourist, has won the Americanism Award from the Boy Scouts of America. The award, given each year to people "who personify the traditions of our country and the Boy Scouts of America," will be given to Tito at a February 21 event in Los Angeles.
The European Southern Observatory has released new images of Saturn and Io taken by the Very Large Telescope in Chile. The images, taken with an adaptive optics system, are among the best ever taken from the ground and have similar resolutions to images produced by the Hubble Space Telescope.